Ariel Rudiakov
Ariel Rudiakov, violist and conductor, is co-founder and Artistic Director of Taconic Music in Manchester (VT) and Music Director and conductor of Danbury Symphony Orchestra (CT) and Yonkers Philharmonic.
Biography
As the Assistant Conductor of the Greenwich (CT) Symphony Orchestra and former Adjunct Faculty at the University of Indianapolis, Rudiakov conducted the chamber orchestra and coached chamber music from 2017 to 2022. He attended pre-college at the Manhattan School of Music and received Bachelor's and Master’s degrees at SUNY Purchase and the University of Illinois at Champain-Urbana.
Rudiakov was a scholarship student at Yale University’s master’s program, where he studied viola with Jessie Levine and chamber music with members of the Tokyo String Quartet. He enjoys a diverse musical life, performing to critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and abroad with many fine musicians, including the Shanghai, Lark, and Indianapolis Quartets, current and former members of the Tokyo, Juilliard, and Guarneri quartets, pianists Ruth Laredo, Davide Cabassi, Andre Michel Schub, and Drew Peterson, among many others. He is a former member of the New York Piano Quartet and Equinox String Quartet and a founding member and president of SONYC (String Orchestra of New York City). He was Artistic Director of the Manchester (VT) Music Festival from 2000 to 2016. Among his recordings are the complete string quartets by Camille Saint-Saens and the piano quintet by Vittorio Giannini (MSR Classics), which Fanfare Magazine described as “utterly superb.”
Composers Richard Lane, Philip Lasser, and Coleridge Taylor Perkinson have dedicated their work to Rudiakov. At the podium, he collaborated with noted musicians Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Michael Rudiakov, Bernard Greenhouse, David Deveau, Christopher O’Reilly, and others. Resident and guest conducting positions have included the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Symphony, Bergen and Yonkers Philharmonics, Antara Ensemble, Manchester Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Sage City Symphony, and recording sessions with Dance Theater of Harlem. Over the past three years, he performed chamber music at the Kawai A Ledro Festival in Italy and the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival in Vermont.
As a devoted fan of prog and other kinds of rock music, Rudiakov plays electric viola on a re-booted and released song called Wizards by his band, The Region of Where. Wizards can be heard on Bandcamp and other streaming platforms. In addition, occasional acting has beckoned Rudiakov. He can be seen in the feature film Breathe In (starring Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones) playing, not surprisingly, the conductor.
Rudiakov has been an instructor at Bennington since Spring 2024.